German Police Say Pilot Is 'Disturbed'

DAVID McHUGH

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, January 5, 2003

Associated Press Writer

A man who stole a small plane and threatened to crash it into Frankfurt's financial district, sowing fear of terrorist attack and prompting the evacuation of skyscrapers, apparently is mentally disturbed, police said Monday.

The man, identified by police as a 31-year-old German, circled the German banking capital's tallest buildings in a motorized glider for about two hours Sunday, saying he wanted to draw attention to Judith Resnik, a U.S. astronaut killed in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion.

The man landed safely at Frankfurt's busy airport, briefly forcing the closure of runways before he was taken into custody. The German media said his name was Franz-Stephan Strambach.

The pilot was being questioned by police Monday pending a decision on what charges he will face. He was to be brought before a judge later to be formally served with an arrest warrant.

"We believe he is mentally disturbed," police spokesman Juergen Linker said, adding that prosecutors would weigh his mental state before deciding the charges.

In radio contact with air traffic controllers, the man threatened to crash his glider into the European Central Bank headquarters unless he was allowed a TV interview as well as a call to Resnik's family in Baltimore, Md.

"I want to make my great idol Judith Resnik famous with this," the pilot said in a call from the plane to news channel n-tv. "She deserves more attention. She was the first Jewish astronaut, and maybe that's why she isn't really considered."

Axel Raab, a spokesman for German air traffic control, said police psychologists helped persuade the pilot to land by promising him contact with the Resnik family

It was not immediately known if he did speak with the family. Police were investigating reports that the pilot called Resnik's brother while in the air, Linker said.

Charles Resnik is listed as a radiologist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and has helped run an organization that commemorates the Challenger crew.

Military jets scrambled and authorities ordered thousands of people to leave the main rail station, two opera houses and several skyscrapers. Most of the office buildings were empty since it was a Sunday afternoon at the end of the Christmas season.

German media reported that Strambach lives with his mother in Darmstadt, a city about 25 miles south of Frankfurt.

He is believed to have stolen the plane from an airfield at Babenhausen, southeast of Frankfurt, by threatening the pilot with a gun. Police said it was unclear if the gun was real and loaded.

"I expect that the security agencies will naturally think about what can be done to prevent something like this in the future," Raab told n-tv.

Resnik was among the seven astronauts killed when the shuttle Challenger exploded seconds after takeoff on Jan. 28, 1986 from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Strambach's name appears as the webmaster of an Internet site devoted to Resnik, with links documenting her career, death and efforts to remember her, including the position in the night sky of an asteroid carrying her name.